Family and Education

b. by 1534, yr. s. of George Neville, 5th Lord Bergavenny. Prob. unm.1

Offices Held

Biography

Like that of his fellow-Member Thomas Mildmay, George Neville’s name was inserted on the Helston indenture for 1555 in a different hand. That Neville was the younger son of Lord Bergavenny rather than one of many namesakes is suggested by the patronage which that young man could command. The warden of the stannaries, (Sir) Edward Hastings, and the recent joint receiver-general for the duchy of Cornwall (who had kept an interest in the office after selling his share to John Cosworth), Sir Edward Waldegrave, were his kin and since they were political allies they may well have acted in concert to procure him the seat. This identification of Neville is given substance by the passage during the Parliament of an Act (2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c.22) restoring the heirs of Sir Edward Neville, George Neville’s uncle and Waldegrave’s father-in-law, to the remainder of the barony of Bergavenny. Neville probably also met Mary’s criterion that the Members chosen for her fourth Parliament should be ‘grave men, and of good and honest behaviour, and especially of Catholic religion’ in that he did not follow Sir Anthony Kingston’s lead in opposing a government bill. Moreover, it may have been as one out of sympathy with the prevailing orthodoxy that he lived in relative obscurity in Berkshire throughout the reign of Elizabeth until his death, when he left £40 to be ‘distributed among Catholic persons’ by his cousin and executor Nicholas Waldegrave. His will, made on 2 June 1591 or 1592 and proved on 22 June 1592, also shows that he was related to his Berkshire neighbours, the Babhams and the Mores.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: A. D.K. Hawkyard

Notes

• 1. Presumed to be of age at election. PCC 56 Harrington.
• 2. C219/24/25; PCC 56 Harrington; VCH Berks. iii. 128-9.